Lawmaker STELA Interest Rising Before Likely Senate Commerce Hearing

Senate Commerce will “eventually end up marking up” a STELA renewal bill this year because it will “need to be reauthorized” in some form, said Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. The 2014 STELA recertification extended the statute through the end of 2019 (see 1411200036). Thune was among those who cited lobbying over the past five months by broadcasters on the issue (see 1810090045), noting “there are obviously a lot of folks who would rather see us not do anything.” NAB highlighted the need to allow STELA to sunset during its February conference of state-level broadcasters (see 1902260071).

Wicker cited STELA recertification's importance to consumers in rural areas like Mississippi as the top reason he believes it's a priority. Senate Commerce's media market hearing, believed likely to happen March 27 (see 1903080061), will help the committee begin the formal renewal debate, he said. The panel's scope will be a “little broader” so Senate Commerce also can consider what other media policy issues it wants to tackle via legislation.

Thune said the coming Senate Commerce hearing will “probably shape what we end up doing legislatively” to recertify STELA, including the bill's final scope. “What that looks like will probably depend” on how lawmakers view changes to the media landscape since Congress renewed the statute in 2014, he said. The House Communications Subcommittee held a similar hearing in September (see 1809270062).

Senate Commerce and Senate Judiciary member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., didn't indicate which way she's leaning on STELA, but recertification is “something that we'll probably get to” in the fall. The “more pertinent conversation” lawmakers need at the Senate Commerce hearing is about how “delivery systems have changed and evolved,” including the shifting roles of satellite and cable providers, broadcasters and over-the-top video services, she said. “It's appropriate to have a good conversation about what the role of STELA will be” in the future.

Senate Communications ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and other Senate Commerce Democrats also favor reauthorizing STELA.

Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us she believes there “will be lots to talk about,” especially since there's “a lot that's happened in the media environment, particularly on consolidation.” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said he's still thinking about what media policy issues he wants to include in reauthorization talks. Lobbyists believe Democrats will use the debate as a vehicle for addressing FCC actions in recent years on media ownership rules (see 1804030061).

House Priorities

There's also House interest in STELA, but neither House Commerce nor House Judiciary appears to be placing recertification work at the same priority level as does Senate Commerce.

“We'd like to do a bill” to renew STELA this year, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. “It's not as if it's not on” the agenda, but “our focus now” is squarely on advancing the Democrats' Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644), he said. The bill and Senate companion S-682 would add a new title to the Communications Act that says the FCC order rescinding its 2015 rules “shall have no force or effect” (see 1903060077). A House Communications markup of the bill is expected at the end of March (see 1903120078).

House Commerce ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., told reporters he's “reserving comment” on the need for STELA renewal. Last year, he was skeptical about the need to keep the statute (see 1810230051).

House Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., believes STELA “should be reauthorized,” but the shape such legislation should take requires hearings. The committee “needs to claim our jurisdiction” over the statute and “I'm encouraging” Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., “to do that,” Collins said. “I hope we can examine how” the law needs to be modified to reflect how media landscape changes are “going to play out” over the next five years.” There are also “real issues for rural areas in particular” that lawmakers should tackle in a final bill, he said, noting his interest during the 2014 recertification round in using legislation to address orphan counties (see 1407110017).

Industries' Outlook

Wicker's remarks last month in favor of STELA were a surprise to broadcasting officials. They believe his support alone doesn't make reauthorization inevitable. Other Senate Commerce members may “take Wicker's lead” on STELA because he's the chairman, but “it's a lot more difficult to get all the members on Senate committees to line up behind you” than it is on House committees, a broadcasting lobbyist said.

“Broadcasters always start from the extreme position of 'we don't have to'” renew STELA, said American Cable Association Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman. “That's just a strategic ploy and it always fails.”

The majority-Democratic House committees view STELA renewal as “too good of a vehicle to pass up” given their concerns about media market consolidation and other matters, one media industry lobbyist said. The scope of a recertification bill remains in significant flux, from a “clean reauthorization” to a far more extensive measure that ties in other policy matters.

Lobbyists said it remains likely that retransmission consent rules will be a top target in the coming debate because of ongoing interest from House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Scalise is likely to refile his Next Generation TV Marketplace Act, which would repeal compulsory copyright licenses and retransmission provisions included in the 1992 Cable Act and end Communications Act mandates on carriage and purchase of certain broadcast signals by MVPDs. Eshoo is considering revisiting her Video Consumers Have Options in Choosing Entertainment (Video Choice) Act, which addresses retransmission blackouts (see 1812280025).

Senators Write AT&T

The rhetorical war of lawmaker letters over STELA has begun.

Four senators, including Commerce member Jon Tester, D-Mont., wrote A&T CEO John Donovan to urge the company's DirecTV subsidiary to carry local stations in 12 underserved media markets. The markets are: Alpena, Michigan; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Casper-Riverton, Wyoming; and Cheyenne, Wyoming; Scottsbluff, Nebraska; Grand Junction, Colorado; Helena, Montana; North Platte, Nebraska; Ottumwa, Iowa; Presque Isle, Maine; San Angelo and Victoria, Texas; and Glendive, Montana. Those markets “receive limited or no access to locally broadcasted networks stations through their subscriptions” despite “technological advances that allow satellite companies to serve local channels into local markets in any location,” wrote Tester and John Barrasso, R-Wyo. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.

The senators hear from their constituents DirecTV “often delivers distant signals from places like New York City and Los Angeles instead of a nearby media market that may carry important and relevant local news and alerts.” The current STELA statute's distant signal provisions allow the practice, but “we do not see why [DirecTV] could not work to minimize the distance and provide local news” from within the affected subscribers' regions, they said.

In all 12 affected markets, broadcasters' "free over the air signal is available and can be combined with DIRECTV service seamlessly," an AT&T spokesperson emailed. "The law only allows distant signals to be provided to homes that cannot get an over the air signal with an antenna."